$code
Jeff Wood, Reconnecting America's New Media Director and Chief Cartographer, participated in a radio program on Bay Area station KALW on Sept. 10.
The Your Call program featured a conversation about how the expansion of mass transit system would affect economic productivity. The show discussed Reconnecting America's Moving to Work in the Bay Area report and new research by UC Berkeley showing that depending on the size of a city, the economic value of transit could be worth anywhere from $1.5 million to almost $2 billion dollars a year.
In addition to Wood, program host Rose Aquilar's guests included Dan Chatman, assistant professor of city and regional planning at UC Berkeley, and Debbie Hale, Executive Director Contract Performance Goals and Objectives The Transportation Agency for Monterey County (TAMC).

Low-income workers face multiple barriers to advancement
Moving to Work examines the critical role of transit - as well as development clustered around transit (TOD) - in linking low-income communities with career-ladder opportunities
Reconnecting America with Urban Habitat and support from the Great Communities Collaborative today released the findings and recommendations from a year and a half long project: Moving to Work in the Bay Area, a study of the barriers that low-income workers in the Bay Area face to accessing economic opportunity.
The study found that while low-income workers in the Bay Area face multiple barriers to career advancement, the economic and workforce development fields often overlook a key barrier for low-income workers: transit access. In turn, transit advocates often overlook the importance of job creation and training to building a stronger Bay Area economy as well as…

A new report by the University of Minnesota examining the perspectives of developers and business leaders on achieving transit-oriented jobs-housing balance along the Twin Cities transit network has been added to the Resource Center best practices database.

A 2012 report detailing the Bay Area Rapid Transit District's bicyle plan and a report measuring jobs created by pedestrian and bicycle access projects have been added to the Resource Center best practices database.

Executive Summary
Pedestrian and bicycling infrastructure such as side­walks, bike lanes, and trails, can all be used for transportation, recreation, and fitness. These types of infrastructure have been shown to create many bene­fits for their users as well as the rest of the commu­nity. Some of these benefits are economic, such as increased revenues and jobs for local businesses, and some are non-economic benefits such as re­duced congestion, better air quality, safer travel routes, and improved health outcomes. While other studies have examined the economic and non­economic impacts of the use of walking and cycling infrastructure, few have analyzed the employment that results from the design and construction of these projects. In this study we estimate the employment impacts of building and refurbishing transportation infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians. We ana­lyze various transportation projects and use state-specific data to estimate the number of jobs created…

The Moving To Work project is part of the Great Communities Collaborative’s Regional Policy & Planning strategy. The main goal of this project is to link low-income workers, job support services, trainings, and employers to the Bay Area’s transit system.

Introduction
Most of the emphasis to date on TOD has been around residential development – building compact, mixed-use, mixed-income housing near transit, with shops and services nearby and a variety of transportation choices. Yet economic and workforce development are just as important to incorporate into transit-oriented communities. People who can take transit to work often spend less on transportation costs, saving them money to spend on other things. Employers also benefit by locating near transit in a variety of ways, from gaining access to a larger labor pool, saving money on things like parking and health care and greater convenience to clients and customers. Workforce training providers that locate near transit give potential workers greater access to their services and also lower the cost of taking such training courses in order to find a job. This is especially important for low- to middle-skill workers, who often need training beyond high school to get a good paying…